The Good Old Days

There seem to be quite a few persons who post on the CC forum that long for the simpler days of their youth.

"The days when there were men and women, strong family values, everyone had an impeccable work ethic, when there were get-togethers every Sunday at church, and when undesirable folk kept well clear of your neighborhood," such people might say. "There wasn't so much negativity back then. One was assured of their worth, the value of the sweat from their brow, and their place in their blessed country."

Do you yearn for these times, dear reader?

@DarkLordChungus AGH! NO! Please, anything but those "good old days"! I like being able to vote, have a job, date other women, wear pants, and not have to address dudes as Mr. So-And-So and Mr. Such-And-Such while they refer to me by only my first name, like a child. I DO NOT YEARN FOR SUCH TIMES

pmvines

There was still a ton of ugliness just was much more suppressed and not searchable from a cellular phone that accessed the interwebs . And I love that a lot of people are more accepting of differences and there is an expectation of accountability for being a garbage human . When i was my sons age , it wasn't as easy to be open about sexuality for example. I love that he is able to be open about his with less backlash and more indifference about it from the general public. Hearing my mother and him have a conversation about his trans boyfriend without the pretense of it being weird or just a passing phase is actually kinda heartwarming to me

TheFunCartel

Yes we all miss separate drinking fountains and bathrooms, “Father Knows Best,” “HeeHaw” and all white tv shows and news. We also miss segregationists like George Wallace being a viable presidential candidate, cigarette commercials, and black activists, entertainers and athletes being on government watch lists. Back then we didn’t have to put up with cultural history, black history or any alternative perspective. We could discriminate freely if someone had a history of visiting a psychiatrist. You could kill homosexuals freely because, well, they were homosexuals and not worthy of police manpower hours. Women couldn’t hold positions of power because the possibility of pregnancy and/or the nuclear family would explode into nothingness. Yes we have lost a cultural treasure trove of history for eliminating these things.

I made this thread with the intent of outing zealots, racists, homophobes, etc.

It's not going well.

pmvines

@DarkLordChungus the day is still young

It seemed to feel good at the time because things were somewhat calmer, but it was a false feeling. So many things were just not talked about or simply shoved under the rug. @FunCartel said it very well.
For those who see the country as being divided, which it is, I find it more healthy than pretending all is well. We will always have conflict and disagreement, and I embrace it. I only hope that we can learn to deal with it in a non violent, mutually respectful manner.

Oh my god this thread has been lovely so far. It's restoring my faith in humanity.

But I'll give it time. As @pmvines said, the day is still young

Sideon

I don't know. I kind of miss the days when drag queens threw bricks at the police after they were tired of being extorted and persecuted. **#Stonewall **

Want to avoid first degree murder (Harvey Milk) and assassination charges of a SF mayor (Mascone) if you claimed derangement from fast food? #TwinkieDefense

Killing homos was a free-for-all, and defense attorneys STILL use the "gay panic" justification for their client's actions, up to and including murder. It worked for Matthew Shepard's killers. #TheLaramieProject

From the 80s through today, religious institutions branched out from real estate to set up and tout reparative therapy to cure gays. If pray-the-gay away didn't work, they employed electro-shock and genital torture. Best way to get rid of your gay-kid problem? Commit them to a "home" for sometimes years and toughen them up a little with group sports, forced physical labor. [Note, there wasn't as big of a market to cure lesbians.] Tangentially, the mortuary businesses miss the high rate of suicides. #ReparativeTherapyShouldBeOutlawed

Yes. Let's bring back those days, if only to ensure they never happen again.

Side note. But whenever I hear someone extol their own supposed values and virtues, it brings to mind my favorite bumper sticker: I've upped my standards, now up yours.

littermate

No.

Nice post @Sideon It is through exchanges like this thread that will help affect change. It is up to us individuals to make it happen. Do not expect our government and any level to create real change, nor would I want our government to do so. Government programs are not normally successful. Waiting around for our government to make life better will be futile. I have chosen to volunteer in areas of my interest to help others and to encourage conversation among my family, friends and other contacts. If you think you are powerless, you are wrong. Just spread kindness whenever and wherever you can. And maintain your sense of humor. My life experience tells me that we humans are more alike than different and embracing the differences makes life richer

.p.s. I also do not miss the days when Peace Mongers like John Lennon, Cat Stevens (Yusaf) and Bob Marley were put on watch lists and even prohibited from entering our country.

@ littermate. Why must you be so wordy??
lol

cuddlerforu24

I miss when you used tonpop the hood on your car and see one fat pipe protruding form the engine and it says “ OiL”.

Now you open the hood , ( or bonnet for the website owners) and it’s like ..... never mind

How about going to the paint store for paint choices for decorating your house and the decisions were easy to make ..... red .... yellow.... white ... blue ..... green ... now there’s like ... 5,000,000 shades of whatever

hugonehugall

I do miss the “Good Ole Days “
I miss the days where breathing on a Quarterback didn’t get you a penalty flag

When your friends would actually call you on the phone to check on you instead of relying on 40 characters or Emojis

When customer service didn’t mean pressing a bunch of buttons to listen to a recording that told you to go to a website .

When you got to eat birthday cake after singing happy birthday and someone blew out the candles .... actually I don’t miss that , in retrospect how gross was that ?

Cuddle_RN

I LOVE the changes and have never wished for the good old days. They were only "good" for certain white men, and even for them the cultural expectations were toxic (the Clint Eastwood model of masculinity, excluding Bridges of Madison County). The new movie Chaos Walking paints a beautiful picture of healthy masculinity, I was happily surprised!

I do love a good church get together, but only because I'm fortunate enough to have thrown off toxic religion and found a church led by Jesus people. Sadly, most Americans will have no idea what that looks like. That's another thing I love about all the changes I see happening - lots of strong young women and the children of toxic leaders calling out the BS from the churches they grew up in, while keeping their faith in a God who loves each one of us. Even the "undesirable folks". (To anyone who's been hurt by Assholes for Jesus, I hate that shit and I'm sorry that happened. You are free to believe anything or nothing, as long as you're not hurting anyone. I'm not here to argue with or convert anyone.)

The only thing I WOULD like to see make a comeback is "One was assured of...the value of the sweat from their brow". This thing where the CEO makes 500x more than the people who work for (usually) him is utter horseshit, to use my WWII grandfather's term.

Thanks for starting this thread @DarkLordChungus, it's interesting!

@Cuddle_RN
I enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts

This post wasn't successful in the way I intended. It was too dang pleasant and sensible. @Sideon, could you eradicate this experiment of mine?

Sideon

I don't typically delete a thread if there are other comments, but I'll close threads as requested.